This invention relates generally to the field of education, and more particularly, relates to a system for modeling cognitive behaviors of individual learners and for inherently providing instructors with diagnostic feedback.
It is known in the art that educators and trainers need a vehicle for checking students"" understanding of concepts presumably learned. Whether achieved by formal testing or by obtaining answers to informal questions, an exchange of ideas with students is prerequisite to enable an instructor to prescribe further learning. It will be appreciated that such additional learning may constitute either progressing to a subsequent concept or re-teaching the previous concept. Furthermore, this instructor-student interaction allows students themselves to become aware of the degree to which they have understood and assimilated new learning.
It is known in the art of education that reflection and metacognition are critical to the learning process and, accordingly, are elements associated with the constructivist theory of learning. Under this theory, successful learners clarify their understandings when are able to reflect upon the nature of their own learning processes and able to analyze the ways in which they internally construct knowledge and meaning. It will be appreciated by those conversant in the art that traditional learning theory purports that students absorb information similarly to sponges and then regurgitate acquired information during test-taking activities. The constructivist approach suggests a more complex and dynamic process for learning wherein students develop as learners as they xe2x80x9ccome to knowxe2x80x9d the learning processes that they have used. This awareness promotes students"" ability to learn and to understand new information. See the text, The Constructivist Leader written by Linda Lambert et al., p. 18.
It will also be appreciated that current learning environments may include reflective activities. Most such activities, however, are performed piecemeal and without the benefit and support of technology. Alternatively, such activities may only appear implicitly throughout technology-based resources. In either scenario common in the art, instructors"" reflective questioning focus on discerning the learning process of a group of students rather than of individuals. This group approach has proven to be a limitation in achieving significant improvement for individual learners.
Thus, what is needed in the art is a more effective approach and procedure for modeling reflective practices that lead to yield a more accurate diagnosis of student needs. Accordingly, the limitations and disadvantages of the existing procedures known in the art are overcome with the present invention which provides improved means and techniques for more effective instruction.
In one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a methodology for implementing comprehensive instructional activities that inherently improve the diagnostic process by modeling reflective practices for individual learners. The preferred embodiment of the present invention provides an online system of comprehensive instructional activities that inherently improve the diagnostic process by modeling reflective practices for individual learners. As will become clear from the detailed description, the preferred embodiment of the present invention enables individual learning to be achieved in a manner hereinbefore unknown in the art.
Embodiments of the present invention provide a synergy between reflective analysis techniques and related diagnostic testing that it has been found significantly facilitate individual learning. During and after diagnostic testing, a series of reflective questions is posed to a student, thereby causing the student to apply patterns, clues, and problem-solving strategies to the specific content being studied. In so doing, the the present invention reviews a student""s thinking behaviors and concomitantly constructs strategic models for subsequently addressing a given concept or skill.
Both the individual student and teacher benefit from the versatility of this approach. An important feature and advantage of the present invention is the immediacy of the feedback received. Since the questions posed to the student correspond to the questions a teacher would ideally ask if class-time permitted, the student could respond any time and anywhere. It is well known in the art that prompt and thorough feedback enhances learning and retention of acquired information.
Another feature and advantage of the present invention is that students"" affirmation of known concepts and skills may be totally customized and individualized, on a student-by-student basisxe2x80x94inherently and automatically. It is yet another feature and advantage of the present invention that scaffolding of new learning for students may be totally customized and individualized, on a student-by-student basisxe2x80x94inherently and automaticallyxe2x80x94using a database of instructional activities.
Branching capabilities of the system taught by the present invention, supported by underlying logic, particularly apparent in the computerized and on-line embodiments, enables each student to respond asynchronously to the plurality of reflective questions. Based on correct or incorrect responses, the system either leads the learner through multiple metacognitive questions or terminates that series in favor of an alternative series more attuned to that individual learner. As a result of this individualization and adaptive feature of the instant system, the teacher or trainer receives superior feedback regarding the underlying quality of the learner""s understanding than would be received from a conventional test score.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a methodology that diagnoses students"" conceptual and reflective deficits.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a methodology for modeling and reinforcing reflective strategies.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system that inherently incorporates a student""s affirmation of known concepts and skills into an internal database that uses reflective analysis questioning procedures to automatically generate a totally customized and individualized learning regimen on a student-by-student basis.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a system that instantaneously prescribes instructional tutorials for a learner""s remediation or enrichment, depending upon diagnostic test results coupled with the student""s responses to reflective analysis question sequences.
These and other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, wherein reference is made to the figures in the accompanying drawings. Like numerals in these drawings refer to like components.